An ACM Queue Publication

The way we develop software struggles to keep pace with changes in technology and business. Even with the rise of agile, people still flip-flop from one branded method to another, throwing away the good with the bad and behaving more like religious cultists than like scientists.

This article explains why we need to break out of this repetitive dysfunctional behavior, and it introduces Essence, a new way of thinking that promises to free the practices from their method prisons and thus enable true
learning organizations.

What are the worst things you can do to compromise a team’s agility when acting as a Product Manager and dealing with teams of teams? Well the number one problem is not behaving in an agile manner. It’s not a case of which technique to use. Read this fun and easy-to-read guide by Ian Spence.

Is there a single method for the Internet of things?

The Industrial Internet Consortium predicts the IoT (Internet of Things) will become the third technological revolution after the Industrial Revolution and the Internet Revolution. Its impact across all industries and businesses can hardly be imagined. Existing software (business, telecom, aerospace, defense, etc.) is expected to be modified or redesigned, and a huge amount of new software, solving new problems, will have to be developed. As a consequence, the software industry should welcome new and better methods.

This article makes the case that to be a major player in this space you will need a multitude of methods, not just a single one. Existing popular approaches such as Scrum and SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework) may be part of the future, but you will also need many new methods and practices—some of which aren’t even known today. Extending a single method to incorporate all that is needed would result in something that is way too big and unwieldy. Instead, the new OMG (Object Management Group) standard Essence can be used to describe modular practices that can be composed together to form a multitude of methods, not only to provide for all of today’s needs, but also to be prepared for whatever the future may bring.

Feature Slicing Guide and Poster

One of the key activities that will help make your SAFe® program a success is the careful preparation of your Features prior to Program Increment (PI) planning. And one important part of this preparation is to slice up any of the targeted Features that are too large to be easily delivered within the PI.

This handy downloadable guide shares some of our experiences in slicing Features. And, in tribute to Richard Lawrence and his popular Story Splitting poster, the authors have provided you with a complementary Feature Slicing poster for you to use in your SAFe program. Sweet!

An ABC Guide to Leveraging Adaptive, Bite-Sized, Composable Practices

To be agile as teams, we need to adjust our approach to meet our immediate challenges and needs. To be agile as an organization, we need to learn collectively and evolve our approach over time to support our evolving mission,
so that we continue to excel in an ever-changing environment.

We would not call a TV set “adaptive” if, in order to adjust the volume, we had to throw it away and replace it with a model with a different volume setting. So why are we prepared to accept process frameworks that leave us in a
similar predicament every time we want to improve our product development performance as an organization?

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We are passionate about improving team performance and optimizing and de-risking the delivery of technology to provide tangible business value. Our team of high-caliber consultants, innovators and strategists have deep knowledge and skills and have empowered some of the world’s biggest brands and government agencies – accelerating software development teams and improving agile value delivery. Our toolkit of intellectual assets and ready-to-go practices enables our consultants to rapidly kick-start engagements tailored to the unique needs of our clients – providing exceptional results with lasting impact.